Best Management Practices

Where urbanisation is concerned the different effects that industry, over fishing, physical alterations to landscape, destruction of habitats, and the other repercussions of expanding populations have on the marine and coastal environment have been well documented globally. Different methods for planning the best management of this expansion are now being investigated as the stark realisation that our coastal cities shall be increasing in size quicker than any other areas in future decades hits home.

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The Regional Seas Programme of UNEP, Agenda 21 (approved in 1992 by the Earth Summit of the UN Conference on Environment and Development), and the General Programme of Action on Land-based Activities adopted in 1995 all put the emphasis on sustainable development in the activities they promote.

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Many past management practices have been aimed at pleasing just a few user groups. On coasts user groups are abundant and range from tourists to fishermen to trawling boats to scuba divers. Previously a management action may have just satisfied the needs of just a few user groups. Integrated coastal management (ICM) is the process by which all user groups can join and discuss the possible actions to take, so actions are acceptable to all parties and a balance between preservation and use is found. ICM is widely accepted as the correct approach to managing the diverse problems of coastal areas.

 

With many conflicting user groups ICM can be extremely difficult. A coastline will cover many different jurisdictions, all with different regulations concerning coastal development. Co-ordinating all these regional differences is a major problem in coastal management (see Strymonikos example). As is convincing local businesses and industries that management is even necessary!

Management in many areas (Shanghai for instance) is currently very sectoral with numerous different organisations, towns and lower levels of government all trying to manage areas either next to or overlapping each other. In the United Kingdom there are 28 central government departments, agencies, and statutory bodies who have an interest in the coastal zone (not including the many local authorities, local institutions and non- government bodies who also have an explicit interest). The result is work being duplicated, plans contradicting each other, and little communication and co-operation between the various parties. ICM encourages local and national legislation to complement each other instead of conflict. This usually means the drafting of completely new legislation but it is ultimately essential to a smooth management operation. Communication between all user groups and all levels of law makers is also vital. Creating this institutional structure, all communicating their wants and perspectives, makes management of the coast an easier and more effective task.

ICM should be operated by governments at a local/ regional level with aide offered by national government initiatives. On a national level, countries need to be capable of collecting, collating, storing, analysing, exchanging and disseminating environmental data and information. The various advantages of modern ecosystem monitoring techniques such as, satellite imaging, need to be encouraged and funded.